Free Republic

The passionate stand by Americans across the country in protesting the failure of grand juries to indict policemen for killing two unarmed people – both poor, black men – is revving up the demand for a political response from Democrats in Washington. Young people of all colors, but mostly blacks, Hispanics and immigrants, are the primary source of that pressure. Their political agenda extends beyond outrage over the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York. They also want Democrats in Congress to get busy defending ObamaCare. But their rising political engagement is best seen...

Peaceful protests have been happening for over 100 days. But white folks only really pay attention if they fear they have something to lose. Smoke flares in their nostrils, because then they are confronted with the possibility of charred, burning, white flesh. No more water. The fire next time. If I have to begin by convincing you that Black Lives Matter, we have all already lost, haven’t we? So let’s not begin there. Let’s begin at the end. At the end there is only Michael Brown Jr.’s dead body, no justice, and weeping and gnashing of teeth. For his parents,...

Yesterday, as they often do, thousands of protesters descended on Washington, DC to protest police brutality against black men. The rally, led by Al Sharpton and attended by high-profile activists in the black community, focused on promoting a “black agenda,” and railed against the typical enemies of the progressive community: the Koch brothers, establishment politicians, and the Republican party. To close the rally, Reverend Jamal Bryant of Empowerment Temple in Maryland offered one of the angriest, most divisive prayers ever uttered in public. Via the Daily Caller: Dispatch angels right now of protection around our sons from psychopathic, sociopathic police...

[SNIP] "There is a reason that they racially profile us in the way they do. Sometimes it is wrong, and sometimes it is right," Barkley said. The problem with these statements isn't just that they are misleading -- 16 out of 29 witness statements said that Mike Brown had his hands up to surrender, in direct conflict with Darren Wilson's story; and police used a banned choke hold on Eric Garner, a measure that was known to cause death -- but that Charles Barkley is uniquely and astoundingly unqualified to discuss issues of race, law and police violence. If property...

A Christmas gift idea! http://www.leftcoastrebel.com/2014/12/the-mary-jo-kopechne-i-cant-breathe-t.html

Three cardboard cutouts of black people were reportedly found hanged in effigy from nooses on the UC Berkeley campus on Saturday morning. The incident follows a week of protests on the streets of Berkeley, California, to denounce the grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of two unarmed black men in St. Louis and New York. Local pastor Michael McBride was the first to share the image on Twitter. One of the hanged figures, which appears to be a cardboard cutout of a lynched woman identified as Laura Nelson from 1911. The cutout includes the...

We need law and policing reform, but first we have to want to end state-sanctioned violence against African-Americans. As the countless protests, tear gas, National Guard deployments and looting proved, police brutality provokes more anger than other outrages because it’s the supreme violation of our individual rights in a democracy. It is the state actor, as another person, violently snatching our breath away “under color of law.” That the state’s victims throughout our history have been overwhelmingly African-American stamps it as an indelible “badge of slavery,” which means that nothing makes you feel more black in America than experiencing police...

It has been a busy few weeks in Washington lately, from the president's executive order on immigration to the resignation of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. (SNIP) Ayotte said she also believes the president's executive order on immigration last week was a mistake. "Right now, as someone who wants to solve this problem, I think it makes it more difficult to address the underlying immigration problem, and he should not have acted unilaterally," she said.

Local Facebook Video Shows Teens Slapping, Taunting Older Man On CTA Train December 11, 2014 5:08 PM Share on email 554 View Comments Related Tags: attack, Blue Line, CTA, Facebook, Steve Miller, Suzanne Le Mignot, VIDEO Featured & Trending: (CBS) – A video posted on Facebook is generating hundreds of responses, and it shows at least two young men on a CTA Blue Line train, slapping an older man and taunting him. WBBM’s Steve Miller has spoken with one of those young men about why he did it. The video goes on for more than two minutes. It shows at...

They came to the nation’s capital on buses and planes and minivans and trains, from Florida, Detroit and Staten Island, led as much by the families, friends and supporters of African-American men and boys killed at the hands of the police as by civil rights leaders. Thousands of people marched along the National Mall on Saturday to protest the deaths, mirroring protests planned around the nation Saturday, ranging from hikes in canyons in the West to marches down the streets of the nation’s urban centers. The demonstrators here — many of them wearing T-shirts that read “Black Lives Matter” and...

In the Rewrite Lawrence O'Donnell questions several claims made in a Washington Post story written by a law professor about the shooting death of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson. ...

WASHINGTON — The event was billed as one of solidarity, thousands of people unified in their demand for “justice for all” and an end to alleged police brutality against “unarmed black men.” Led by MSNBC host Al Sharpton, the march was organized and promoted by his National Action Network. The final speaker, Reverend Jamal Bryant of Empowerment Temple in Maryland, gave a speech and closing prayer laden with political anger and racial overtones.

Did you know that there’s been a massive uptick in white thugs setting black folks on fire, yet the media has been virtually silent on this horrendous subject? Sure, we all have heard of Darren Wilson's shooting Michael Brown, but there has been no coverage of the aforementioned. Like in zero… nada… nothing… zilch. What kind of racist “news outlets” would be so heinous to cover up such gross and unspeakable evil? Why haven’t the most powerful people in our government and the entertainment industry spoken out and condemned this obvious xenophobic act of viciousness? How come there has been...

Move over, War on Women, there's a new war in town. On the August 18 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, contributor Michelle Bernard warned there is a "war on black men" in the United States, as evidence both by the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and persistent criticism of President Barack Obama from Republicans. What's more, Bernard insisted, there would be a "genocide" of young black men unless the problem were seriously addressed to her satisfaction.

Doubling down on comments he made Wednesday night, Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera appeared on Fox & Friends Friday morning to discuss Cleveland Cavs star LeBron James and the statement he made recently wearing an “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirt prior to a game with the Brooklyn Nets. While LeBron is far from the only NBA player who has worn the shirt to show his dissatisfaction with the grand jury’s decision not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, he is definitely the most high-profile athlete who has done so. Therefore, pundits and commentators have focused on...

Dr. Savage poured over the new $1.2 trillion spending bill, noting the colossal waste and bipartisan "pork barrel" provisions it contains. "Who is going to pay for this?" he asks. "We've just experienced a Republican betrayal of the highest magnitude," Savage announced. In the latest $1.2 trillion dollar spending bill, Obamacare is fully funded. So is amnesty. Boehner is out there, pretending he's concerned. Meanwhile, they gave a billion dollars for the amnesty bill to help illegal aliens. The budget is packed with what we used to call "pork barrel" spending. Now they're called "riders," but it's the same thing:...

You'd think Joe Scarborough would have learned by now to avoid inflammatory statements about the Trayvon Martin case. Back when that case first broke, Scarborough immediately branded George Zimmerman a "murderer." But there was Scarborough at it again this morning. On today's Morning Joe, he sought to contrast the Michael Brown case with that of Trayvon Martin. In Ferguson, "we don't know the evidence," said Joe. Whereas in the Trayvon Martin case, Scarborough said "you had a guy chase a guy around a neighborhood and shoot him because he was black." View the video here.

Michael Savage: Rush Limbaugh is a “water-carrying, fat fraud”??? Savage took a brief respite from discussing deli meats and meatball recipes Wednesday to address the important issues of the day… Democrat bad! Republican good! All Rush Limbaugh does day in and day out. … Water-carriers! Frauds!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO4xNU5LdXo

Tonight, I was listening in to the Michael Savage show while I drove home from buying new sneakers. First, he had on a nutritionist to speak out in favor of fish oils and debunk the new study that's come out against them. Then he launched into his now-familiar anti-Zim diatribes. He had on a few callers who said, "I agree with you", which pleased him greatly. He reiterated that Zimmerman caused the whole problem by (1) being a policeman wannabe, (2) having a loaded gun with the safety off [thanks to Freepers here, I learned that sort of gun has...

So the prosecution has rested in the Zimmerman case. I have long said words to the effect that unless the prosecution produces some surprising evidence I had not heard of before, that Zimmerman should be acquitted. Well, the time for that evidence to be presented has passed, and it hasnÂ’t manifested itself. So my original provisional conclusion is now my near-final conclusion. At this point, it would take nothing less than a confession by Zimmerman to get us to proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, or something equally spectacularly surprising. And I donÂ’t think that is very likely. But...